The Small Print

We scan the Times-Picayune’s legal ads so you don’t have to.

Here’s a list of notable findings from the past week.

Board of Regents seeks new chief – The Louisiana Board of Regents is on the hunt for a new Commissioner of Higher Education, or Chief Executive Officer. The top officer will answer directly to the 15-member policy-making board that coordinates all public higher education in the State, and will replace Interim CEO Tom Layzell, who on Aug. 1 took the place of former embattled CEO Sally Clausen. Clausen resigned after public criticism of a hushed one-day retirement, which granted her a $90,000 payout. Info: 225-342-4253

Health Department wants services for drug-addicted teens and mentally ill – The Department of Health and Hospitals is looking for proposals from public or private organizations that wish to treat drug-dependent mentally ill patients. Facilities must be located in the seven parishes that Region IV serves. The department is also searching for organizations to provide separate facilities for treat drug-addicted teens. Info: 225-342-0777

Is your business disadvantaged? Here’s how to find out – The state Department of Transportation and Development’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program’s goals and conditions are available for public review during normal business hours until Sept. 15 at 1201 Capitol Access Rd. in Baton Rouge. Head to the capital to read them and see if you qualify. The program ensures non-discrimination in the award of Department of Transportation-assisted contracts.

Environmental Quality Department to set biochemical amount – Environmentally-conscious citizens, unite. The state Environmental Quality Department has drafted a Total Maximum Daily Load of biochemical substances for Grays Creek Watershed, which is located in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. The department is taking public comment on the draft through Sept. 9. The draft can be viewed at http://deq.louisiana.gov/portal/default/aspx?tabid=1563.

Franklin High principal to get evaluated by board annually

Editor’s note: With more than three dozen charter schools in New Orleans, each run by its own board, a news organization would have to cover more than three dozen school board meetings to get a full understanding of how all schools are operating. We’ve not seen any media outlets willing or able to do that, so The Lens is stepping into the breach. This coverage is from the first meeting after we decided on our new initiative. In the future, we hope to post as many board meeting notices as possible, as well as the agendas.

After four years as a charter school separate from the city’s beleaguered system, Benjamin Franklin High School’s leaders on Thursday fell into compliance with a state law that requires the principal to be evaluated.

“They have never had an evaluation process before,” said John Parauka, a social studies teacher at Benjamin Franklin for 14 years. “It is in the charter, but they have never got around to it.”

Parauka was in the audience as Franklin’s board, Advocates of Academic Excellence in Education, approved the evaluation process for Principal and CEO Timothy Rusnak.

State law requires that every charter school employee be evaluated, but Franklin never had such an assessment in place for its top employee.

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Franklin has long been the city’s top-performing school.

The evaluation will assess the CEO’s performance in relation to his job description, the school’s charter, the school’s strategic plan, and board-established goals that the board and CEO will agree upon before each school year.

The board’s evaluation process relies heavily on recommendations from a number of sources, including academic advocacy organization New Schools For New Orleans, boards from Isidore Newman School and Metairie Park Country Day School, as well as from other charter schools, board member Mark Mayer said at the meeting. A subcommittee will evaluate Rusnak at the end of each school year, give recommendations, and set annual goals for next year. The subcommittee will also conduct a mid-year check in with the CEO to ensure progress toward goals.

The board elected the subcommittee Thursday, choosing board members Carl Indest, Joia Crear-Perry and Patricia Adams to head evaluations. The new subcommittee will evaluate Rusnak’s 2009-2010 performance and offer feedback immediately, Adams said. The committee consists of board members only to increase expediency of the feedback for Rusnak, she said. According to the evaluation process documents issued to The Lens, faculty and staff will be added to next year’s committee.

Paruaka, who said he has regularly attended the board’s meetings since its inception, said that the board may have had a CEO review in 2007, but it was never an outlined process.

“They just reviewed the principal and found that most of what she did was fine,” he said.

The Louisiana Legislature requires that each school have a manner in which all employees are evaluated.

The CEO’s evaluation process comes almost a year after Franklin was placed on probation for financial issues. Since that time, the school has hired chief financial officer Larry Baudoin, replacing former CFO Susan Andrews.

Landrieu tightens take-home car policy

Fewer city employees are expected to be fueling up take-home cars at this city gas facility on North Broad Street, one of two the city runs.

As he struggles to close a $67 million budget gap, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced a measure Thursday that likely will reduce the number – and cost – of taxpayer-subsidized take-home cars for city employees.

The policy, which sets a residency requirement and requires on-call employees to really be called into work sometime, will result in more than 100 employees losing their city cars, Landrieu’s top lieutenant said.

As of May 24, 185 employees enjoyed the perk of an official car, along with city-paid gasoline and maintenance. (download the Excel spreadsheet or pdf). That’s down 20 vehicles from the 205 taken home in the final days of Ray Nagin’s administration. The information on who has a car was released to The Lens in response to a public records request; it does not include vehicles issued by the police or fire departments.

“A take-home vehicle is a tool for folks to use in effectively carrying out their jobs,” said Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin, who drafted the new policy. “A take-home vehicle is not a perk for upper management; it’s not for people who don’t need one. The city is in a financial position that we just can’t afford to do those sorts of things anymore.”

The savings might not make a substantial dent in this year’s projected budget shortfall, but it will contribute. Former Inspector General Robert Cerasoli said in a December 2008 report that the city could save nearly $1 million by eliminating the perk all together.

Under the new policy, effective Aug. 3, no one living more than 40 miles from the workplace can get a take-home car. No mileage limit is now in place. Six employees with a city car now live farther than that, with two making a 120-mile round trip from home to work.

The policy also tightens the requirement that employees use the car to respond to emergencies around the clock. It now says that the employee not simply be on call, but actually get called in on occasion.

City law requires that the employee use the car to perform a critical city service.

In addition to the cuts for employees who don’t meet the requirements, those employees who live between 20 miles and 40 miles from their workplace will be subject to a monthly fee of $300. That’s three times the amount of cash these employees would have paid under the existing policy. Those who live fewer than 20 miles from work will pay the current rate of $100 a month.

“City employees have paid a modest amount to help offset the cost, but that offset is not differentiated based on how far you live,” Kopplin said in an interview Thursday evening. “If you’re driving 60 miles to and from work each way, we were charging you the same thing. And we don’t think that’s appropriate.”

The new policy will “absolutely” save the city money, Kopplin said.

“This will reduce the number of take home cars, it will reduce our fuel costs, it will reduce liability in terms of the number of accidents we have, just because you are going to minimize use,” he said.

The police department likely will face cuts as well, Kopplin said. Officers who live 20 to 40 miles outside of their workplace and who get called in outside of their regular hours will be eligible for a take-home car, but they’ll have to pay the same fee as any city employee; those who are not frequently called outside of their shift will lose cars. Any officer who lives more than 40 miles away will lose take-home car privileges.

Officers who live within Orleans Parish do not have to be called in frequently to have a take-home car, in hopes that police cars will serve as a crime deterrent in neighborhoods, Kopplin said.

By Aug. 3, the administration will have an estimate of how many vehicles will be turned in. But it’s likely more than 100 employees will lose their cars, Kopplin said.

The policy also requires each driver to keep a log of how many miles are driven for business use and how many miles for personal use. The policy points out that personal use of a take-home car is subject to IRS regulations as a taxable fringe benefit.

Cerasoli’s report suggested that the city could save in the first year $3,400 for every car removed from take-home service.

Landrieu issued a moratorium on giving out new take-home cars when he took office, and he cut back at least one car in each department. Only the mayor and Deputy Mayor Lt. Col Jerry Sneed, who had a car in the Nagin administration, have such vehicles now.

Until last summer, city law limited the number of non-emergency take-home vehicles to 60, a limit that Nagin did not observe. After Cerasoli’s report detailed the number and suspect uses of take-home cars, the City Council responded by lifting the cap.